Each year, Europe’s corporate debt market matures and evolves a little more. The landscape is beginning to look increasingly like the US and private equity firms have been first in the queue to take advantage of that.

Towards the end of 2013 and into early 2014, high-yield bonds were the debt instrument of choice for private equity firms to raise finance for the companies they controlled, particularly as investors were willing to take on more risk and invest in increasingly smaller deals, despite facing a less liquid market for those bond issues.